1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method for determining the position of at least one slice in an examining region, in which slice a slice image acquisition of the examining region by means of an imaging device should occur.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The treatment of a pathology in an examining region often demands the timely staggered acquisition of images from the examining region to be able to conduct an check of the treatment or therapy whether the treatment is successful. An example is the treatment of pathologies in the region of the brain, tumors for instance. In the treatment of such a tumor it is naturally important for the doctor to know whether and how the tumor, dependent on the treatment, changes. For this purpose, images defined for the treatment control slice are acquired by magnetic resonance or computed tomography and are evaluated by the doctor. In order to make an informed decision about the success of the treatment, it is naturally important to conduct the image acquisition in a reproducible manner always in the same slice, because only then can a genuine comparison be made between two images acquired successively at intervals of one or more days, weeks or months.
For reproducible slice alignment it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2003/0139659, to use an atlas containing a multiplicity of comparison images in the form of separate image datasets of real brains, that respectively define specific slices that are relevant and significant.
In operation the examining device, such as a magnetic resonance device, a first set of data of the examining region is acquired, that then can be compared with the information out of the atlas, in which one or more relevant slices have been defined by the user. These slices are then searched by a comparison of the gray scale value distribution of the defined slices and of the acquired examining region in the examining region, and those slices are ascertained having gray scale value distribution features exhibiting a maximum concurrence with the defined slice in the atlas. This principle is naturally applicable as well for the examination of other regions of the body.
Slice determination with one such atlas, however, is not possible if the examining region, as for example the brain, exhibits greater deviations from the normal images in the atlas. This is for instance the case in children, whose brains are undergoing a relatively fast development. The same is true for patients with, for example relatively large tumors. While in adults the anatomy of the brain is overall nearly very similar, and thus the gray scale value distribution as well, is nearly the same in almost all adults, this is not the case in the aforementioned persons due to the clearly different anatomy.